Launch of my MkII Lay down sailing boat

Hi all

A very exciting day today as I had a first sail on my second version of a lay down sailing boat. The main changes to this second version are as follows:

• 
  75mm core instead of 50mm for additional buoyancy

• More freeboard forward

• An assymetric spinnaker
  

The whole idea of this design is to have a very light, car toppable boat that can be setup in a few minutes and gives a good feeling of speed. The hull only weighs 43 pounds so she is very car toppable. The main is 35 square foot and spinnaker around 30 square foot.

There are a couple of pics on my blog here

I was very pleased with the first sail. It was a great feeling raisng the spinnaker for the first time and I was pleased with the handling and feeling of speed.

I have always wanted a boat with a bow sprit and assymetric sail and now I have one!

I managed to break the leeboard mounting bracket at the end of the day but it was an old and rather tired component so needed updating anyway.

Now I have proved the concept works rather well I shall take it up to my local lake to try against a few other boats. Note this is very much a flat water boat only!

All the best
Andy

 

Way to go, Andy! When you can take some pix of you on the boat-not sure I really get how that works. Its a great feeling to get a boat you designed sailing-I congratulate you.......

 

Thanks for the encouraging words Doug. Basically I lie down on it just like you would on a surf board. My feet hang over the stern on a raised bar and I control the rudder with my feet, leaving my hands for sail control. It is actually rather comfortable on flat water.

If this design works out well I might treat myself to a head cam as it certainly feels quite quick that close to the water even if in reality it is not that fast!

Mind you with an all up sailing weight of under 25kg and sail area of 60 square feet I am hoping that in flat conditions off the wind she might go quite quickly and the first sail in sub planing conditions were encouraging.

My reasoning behind such a small mainsail it to keep the forces on the boat down. I figure there is much more strain on a boat when beating close to the wind and hiking out. As long as I can get up wind with the small main, that is good enough for me so I can set the spinnaker and have fun.

Andy

 

Alyne,

Neat looking boat, do you have a picture with you aboard sailing? Not sure I quite get it.

Sorry the next is off topic, but I am really interested in the sailing rig for your planing catamaran. Can you explain what it took to install the windsurfer rig? Is it cantilevered by just being stuck in a tube mounted to the crossbeam? Do you know what kind of relative speed you get compared to a standard beach cat? I assume the sail area is much smaller and the mast bends off early so the speed is limited.
Any details you can provide would be appreciated.
I am thinking about the same thing on a SOF kayak with outriggers, similar to the CLC sailrig. Any pictures about the mounting would be appreciated. And any comments.

Thanks,

Marc

 

Hi Marc
FYI it was an 8 Metre rig I used for my planing catamaran. There are many ways to mount a windsurf rig. I chose to strengthen the bottom half of the mast with fibreglass tape and rely on a very sturdy cross beam and tube to mount it. If I were doing it again I would probably attach stays to the front of the windsurf boom to support it.

As for relative speed to a standard beach cat, it certainly felt fast but I am confident it would not be as fast as a producton beach cat in most circumstances.

Andy

 

Andy,

Did you just stick the reinforced mast into the tube? No tie down? No bolts? Any padding or collar in the top of the tube?

 

Hi Marc
I had a 12 inch vertical tube welded onto the forward cross beam. I closed it at the bottom end, the mast dropped straight into it. No padding used, I found the reinforced mast swiveled quite well inside the aluminium tube. I used one rope tie down from the mast to the cross beam to prevent the mast falling out. This rope was just tied to where the boom attaches to the mast.

To my mind this method although simple puts a huge amount of strain on the cross beam, in a later project using a windsurf rig, I favoured using stays when attaching the windsurf rig on that boat. The three stays were connected to the front of the boom and this worked very well

Andy

 

Andy,

Thanks very much, first time I have seen any details of this type of use.

Marc

 

Quite a few experimental boats have used windsurfer rigs. There is, however, the problem that the vast majority of windsurfer rigs are very much designed for use with very low-drag "hulls" that specialise in medium to strong winds. Therefore they are extremely flat and open-leached and therefore produce much less power than a conventional dinghy rig, or even the rigs used in older boards or longer boards like 11-13' longboards. You can see this easily by simply switching rigs and boards around.

So while windsurfer rigs are useful, they also have their problems when used on a boat. Just sayin'.

Agree that stays connected to the mast at the boom clamp would be more reliable than just sitting the mast on a stub.

 

Andy,
I like the direction you are going -light, simple, fun. You maximize the sensory input of sailing and minimize the the impediments to sailing -cost, time to get to the water.

I have the same objectives but I never considered laying head first, face down. That is how it works right?

Please post video of the boat in operation.

 

Hi Skyak
Yes, that is how it works, laying face first and steering with my feet. No pics or videos of me on the water yet I'm afraid.

Last week I was out sailing and one of the mast stays slackened off a bit putting a huge force on where the mast sloted into a small vertical tube mounted on the deck. I am in the process of installing a windsurf universal joint so if this happens again the mast will just fall off from vertical a little.

I will get some pics or a vid of me on it but it might take a few weeks (saving up for a Go-Pro head cam)

Andy

 

Years ago I flew a hang glider in the same position. Everything was all right when I was doing short training flights, but when I did a 5 minute flight I was unable to keep my head up due to a cramp in my neck.
Turns out you needed to support the weight of your head using a cord from your helmet up to where the harness connected to the kite.

Personally, much older now, I would not like to try this prone position for any reason.

 

Hi
I use an inflatable cushion to support my head, I have found it quite comfortable up to now on flat water (this boat will only ever be used on flat water)

That being said, at some point I might try turning things around by moving the foot controlled steering system to the front of the boat (think kayak steering system) and laying on my back with a small inflatable support for back and head. Whatever configuration I end up with I want to keep as low as I can as it really does give a great feeling of speed.
Andy

 

Suffice it to say, laying prone is pretty unique in sail powered craft. There was a guy in another forum asking if anyone had created a sail powered swim rig -this seems as close as anything I have seen. I was thinking that the prone position might offer faster weight shifting which might make gusty conditions and surfing more fun. Kind of a wind powered boogie board. Of coarse the hard part would be designing the controls so they leave appendages free for weight shifting.

I am also interested in sail rigs for kayaks. Maybe someday I will have something you can use.